Hello hello! Welcome back my friends! I'm having almost as much fun with this story as I am with my other one, Accidents Can Happen! This chapter is actually getting posted the day after chapter 12 of that story, so I like to think I'm on a roll.
I'd like to address two things while I'm here.
1. RPGPersona, yer my favorite reviewer. You make me laugh and provide thoughtful insight towards things I deliberately don't clarify right away. It's almost like a fun game of cat and mouse.
2. MuggleBorn11-I believe the reason the last chapter felt rushed was because it was a bit shorter than what I usually write. A few hundred words, give or take a score. This chapter, on the other hand, is my standard minimum of 5k. It also somewhat addresses Speedy present issues, albeit not in too great of detail (I'm absolutely terrible with techno-lingo so I improvised in a none-direct mannerism).
R&R please and thank you!
Several Days Later…
"You know, Cyborg, there's something about this whole situation that's been bugging me. It's-"
"Soldering iron."
Robin handed his mechanical friend a soldering iron and continued to speak. "It's Beast Boy and Raven. I mean seriously, that whole conversation was weird."
"I get what you mean, Rob." Cyborg nodded but kept his eyes on his project for a moment longer before looking up in thought. He set his tools down and stepped out the door, his cybernetic eye scanning for anything unusual. Finding nothing, he stepped back into the room and scanned it as well. Robin simply raised an eyebrow as Cyborg shut and locked the door behind him.
"What was that all about?"
"Makin' sure we don't have any eavesdroppers." Cyborg went back to work. "I'll let you in on a little secret. BB checked up on Raven twice a day every day, without her knowing."
Robin was shocked. "What! He told us to leave her alone!"
"That's cause he knows how we are. Rob, you would have done yer whole 'I'm the leader and we need to talk about this because it compromises the team' shtick, Starfire would have hugged her to death, and I pretty much would have had to pull my Big Bro card and she hates it when I do that."
"Well, what gave Beast Boy the right to snoop?" Robin crossed his arms in irritation.
"Nothin'." Cyborg shook his head. "Nothing at all, which is why he did it. Plus, he's the only one of us who could get in and out of her room without being noticed. How do you think he knew she was out of shampoo and toothpaste? Flathead screw driver."
Robin complied and handed his friend the tool. "Okay okay, fine. So how did Beast Boy accept all this clones-for-kids' stuff so easily? And how could he be such a good father when he's still such a kid himself?"
Cyborg paused in what he was doing and glanced at his team leader. "I would imagine that running with the Doom Patrol let him see some weird stuff before he joined us, and we've seen some weird crap, dude. As for the father thing, you answered your own question. He's still a kid, so he knows what they're like."
Robin frowned once more and opened his mouth to argue, but Cyborg cut him off. "Come on man, give it up. He knows what a kid needs 'cause he never got it himself. You forget, o' glorious leader, his problems started way before yours, mine, or Star's. So did Raven's, for that matter."
"Fine, fine." The Boy Wonder grumbled. "But that doesn't explain Raven going along with all of this."
The cybernetic giant next to him paused again and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You think Raven's still that little introverted girl that joined up with us all those years ago? She's come out of her shell a lot since those days, man. Even more so since we beat down her dad and then beat down the Brotherhood of Evil."
"That doesn't explain why she'd willingly parent a child with Beast Boy, the one person who drives her crazy!"
Cy picked up a screw and flicked it at his team leader, hitting him right between the eyes. Robin flinched at the stinging sensation and looked at his friend.
"What the heck was that for?!"
"Cause you're being a dummy." Cy crossed his arms. Robin glared at him, so he shrugged. "For someone with great detective skills, you don't see much."
The Boy Wonder growled. "Then why don't you explain it to me?"
"It's because he drives her crazy that she accepted him. He makes sure that she feels, whether its anger at him or feeling wanted on the team, he still does it. She's obviously realized that without him pestering her that she would have withdrawn so much that there would have been two robots on the team. Whether or not she'll actually tell him that is a different story. And you gotta think, they actually do get along pretty good these days. It's not like when we all got together. We've all grown up, man."
"Besides," Cyborg added as an afterthought, "They're a lot closer than you know."
"Huh?"
"After that whole thing with Adonis, Raven was the one who went down there and cheered BB up. I couldn't do it, you couldn't do it, Star couldn't do it. But Raven? Without missin' a beat, she did it. Then, after that whole dragon thing, he returned that favor to her. Heck, he beat me and you to comforting her by like, a freakin' lightyear. Man, did you even know she still has that lucky penny he gave her just before that stuff with her dad?"
Robin, who was startled at the things his friend was saying, could only stammer. "W-what?"
"Yeah. She actually dropped it, but I went back and found it after it all went down. When I gave it back to her, she seemed so happy that I thought her room would explode. Did you know she still has the chicken he gave her at that carnival when we first met Blackfire too?"
"No way!" Robin's mouth was wide open now. "That was like, two years ago!"
"Yep. She's still got it." Cyborg smiled and set his tools down. "Believe it or not, but Raven's actually got a sweet spot for our little green bean. I don't think she knows, though."
"How did I miss all of this?" Robin muttered to himself. Cyborg snorted.
"That's what happens when you're either all bug eyed for catching Slade or goo-goo eyed over Star all the time. You miss the little things."
Robin accepted the indirect scolding from his friend and nodded. After a quiet moment, he spoke up. "You think she'll fall for him?"
Cyborg was quiet for a longer time than his companion, mulling the question over in his head as he put the finishing touches on their project. As he finished, he spoke once more. "I think it's possible, yeah. BB's openly shown more about caring for her well-being than any of us combined, even if he's gone about it the wrong way. She could be starting to realize that with the way he is with Emelia, like seeing how he accepted the kid despite what she is. We've all shown that acceptance, yeah, and you've even gone the distance in mind and body by going to Hell to rescue Raven. But BB? He's going farther by going with his soul by not only accepting Emelia, but reaching out to Raven too. We all know spiritual stuff is Raven's shtick. I think she'll end up falling for the little grass stain, one day. And she'll fall hard."
"Beast Boy better be ready to catch her." The caped crusader muttered under his breath. Cyborg heard him, but ignored it. He knew his little buddy wouldn't let Raven get hurt like that. Not a second time.
"And this whole Raven being a mother thing? I think she'll do fine. She knows how parents aren't supposed to be and she already keeps BB in line most of the time anyways."
Robin nodded. "Alright Cyborg, I see your points. Let's hope for the best. I guess I'll let Speedy know that his arm is ready."
Cyborg nodded, then had a thought as Robin exited the door. "Hey Rob!"
The tights-wearing teen stuck his head through the door, a question mark in his masked eyes.
"Need a hand?" Cyborg asked, straight-faced and holding the prosthetic limb up.
Robin facepalmed.
The next day
Raven looked around the room to find Más y Menos rapidly speaking Spanish to Emelia. The little girl's brow was furrowed as she listened intently to the twins.
"¿Cree que ella entiende?" Mas glanced at his twin. (Do you think she understands?)
Menos shrugged. "Ella es de cuatro , lo dudo." (She is four, I doubt it.)
"Te entiendo." The little girl smiled. "Sólo hablar más despacio, por favor." (I understand.) (Just speak more slowly, please.)
Both the twins and Raven's eyes widened and jaws dropped in surprise. The confused half demon approached the trio and looked at her daughter in confusion. "Emelia, where did you learn to speak Spanish?"
Emmy immediately pointed at the twins. "I heard them speaking it, so I listened."
Raven frowned. "That's not how you learn a language."
Emmy shook her head. "I heard them, mommy, but not what they were saying."
The sorceress paused in thought. "Are you saying that you read their minds and learned their language?"
Eyebrow raised in confusion, Emelia looked at her mother. "Huh?"
Raven sighed and mentally kicked herself for letting her daughter pick up some of Beast Boy's bad speaking habits. "Nevermind. Just be nice to them, okay?"
The little girl smiled and nodded before turning back to the twins. Raven stood up and looked around. Aqualad was chatting with Beast Boy, telling him about the colossal squid he once ran into somewhere near the North Pole. Bumblebee was holding Martin, talking to him while Starfire doted close by.
She really is the mothering type. Raven thought to herself. I wonder if I will ever be like that…
She smiled just a tiny bit when she realized what she had just thought. It wasn't unpleasant to be a mother, even if it was to an artificial child. Emelia was very easy to take care of and she was almost ungodly intelligent for being 'four'. Raven had often wondered if Brother Blood's cultists had restructured her DNA a bit to make her more intelligent. She didn't know anything about genetics, but she was fairly positive that children this young shouldn't be this smart.
The sound of the common room door opening brought her from her musings. Robin and Cyborg entered the room, with Speedy following closely as he flexed his new cybernetic arm.
"I can feel it, but I can't feel it at the same time." The archer complained.
"It's 'phantom limb pain'." Cyborg explained. "You know the limb is gone but your body still feels pain for it."
"That's stupid." Came the grumbling response.
"Try feeling it with four missing limbs." Cyborg deadpanned. Speedy flinched, now aware of how ungrateful he sounded.
"Thanks man…seriously. Green Arrow would be pissed if he knew I was out of commission so young."
"Watch your mouth, Speedy, there are children present." Raven scolded him as she approached. Speedy stuck his tongue out.
"Yeah yeah." Speedy snorted. "Who knew that adopting some lab rat would make you so-"
A wooden block with letters on it whacked him upside the head, almost knocking him over. He staggered upright and looked at his attacker. Beast Boy stood by the kitchen counter, tossing another block up and down.
"Ya know, Speedy, that lab rat is mine and Rae's kid." He said darkly. "So watch yer mouth dude."
"Aw, lookit BB, bein' all protective of the kid and Raven." Speedy teased, making both the shapeshifter and the half demon blush a bit. Beast Boy because he knew it was true. For Raven it was because it was embarrassing that a boy was being protective of her, of all people, for non-brotherly reasons. But before either could respond, a new voice filled the air.
"GREETINGS, TITANS! IT IS I, YOUR ARCH NEMESIS CONTROL FREAK!"
Instantly, all the Titans in the room reacted. Raven swept up behind Emelia and wrapped her arms protectively around the child, Beast Boy bounding in front of her with his claws out and a growl on his lips. Robin stood next to Starfire, with Bumblebee behind them holding Martin. Más y Menos took up a position behind the couch near the couples, with Speedy and Aqualad in combat stances right behind them. Cyborg was up and over the couch standing with his friends, his cannon powering up.
Control Freak cackled, his pudgy face filling the screen. "Looks like I caught you flat footed, Titans! And Titans East are here too! This is gonna be….
He paused and looked closer at the occupants of the room. "Are those…kids?"
Emelia looked up at her protector. "Mommy, who's the fat man?"
"Mommy?" Control Freak's eyes bulged for a moment before a huge evil grin filled his face. There was an odd clicking sound. He cackled again. "This is perfect! I can see the headline now! 'Toddlers in Titan Tower!'"
Cyborg's human eye widened. "Did you just take a picture?"
"Yep! And now the whole world will know that the Teen Titans have been hiding babies in their tower!" Control Freak started laughing again.
Emelia reached out and tugged on Beast Boy's sleeve. "Daddy, who's the fat man?"
That certainly stopped Control Freak's laughter. His eyes almost popped out of his skull. "Wait! Raven had Beast Boy's kid?! Are you freaking kidding me?! I mean seriously, Starfire with Robin is expected, but you two? Pfft!"
"It's more complicated than that!" Beast Boy said defensively.
"Ha! As if I believe you! It doesn't take an idiot to put the lime in the coconut and mix it all up, Beast Boy!"
Both teens blushed immediately, Raven covering Emelia's ears.
"I bet he's a real animal in bed, ain't he, Raven?" Control Freak cackled again.
"Dude! Not cool!" Beast Boy shouted.
The fat nerd evil smile widened. "You're right, Beast Boy. I was gonna challenge you guys today, but I think releasing this picture on the internet will be much, much more fun. Ciao!"
The television clicked off, leaving the group of stunned teens speechless.
Beast Boy was watching a very agitated Raven pace back and forth in the common room. She was somewhere between angry and nervous and it was a very fine line dividing the two emotions right now. Curiously enough, her powers weren't decimating the building around them. He glanced down at the little girl in his lap, noting that she hadn't spoken a word since Raven became agitated. She had watched her mother intently the entire time.
"What are we going to do now? People are going to realize that the children are the reason why one of us has been staying at the tower while the others are out fighting crime." Raven seethed in anger. "We can't keep doing that, it'll cause problems."
"Why do we not find someone who does the sitting of babies?" Starfire looked up from where she was helping Martin into a pair of shorts. He had spilled his drink all over himself and she had just returned from bathing him.
"Who are we gonna find to babysit?" Cyborg frowned. "We can't ask any of the other Titans."
"Does anyone know anyone with free time to watch the kids when we have to go on a mission?" Robin crossed his arms in frustration.
Each of the Titans sat in quiet thoughtfulness for a long time. They all had friends that weren't Titans but having ones that could help them out like this wasn't a certainty.
"Actually…I know a guy. Kind of."
Heads turned to a thoughtful Cyborg, who was rubbing his chin in thought. They waited patiently for him to speak.
"Fixit." He said simply.
"The android that tried to take your human parts from you?" Raven asked, raising her eyebrow.
"Yeah, but you guys know that was before he understood…well, me."
Robin stood quietly in thought, the other Titans looking to him now. Fixit was an unusual individual, an android with telekinesis and telepathy. He was emotionless, but full of curiosity since Cyborg brought him back to the surface world. Before that, Fixit had dwelled in an underground chamber below the junkyard, salvaging and creating small robots to keep him company. He wasn't threatening by himself, but have a small robot army did count towards what he could do. From what Robin understood, Fixit also had genius level intellect.
"Okay Cyborg, go ask Fixit if he would help us. We can offer him the basement, since it's like the lair he lives in. It'll let him have his privacy and plenty of room for electronics. I'm sure he can reinforce the tower too and along with all his little robots he should be able to hold off anyone attacking long enough for us to get here."
Cyborg nodded and then looked to the others. "Anyone wanna come along?"
"Mommy, can we go to the mall?" Emelia looked up, pleading. Raven frowned just a little but nodded. She hated going to the mall, but Emelia was like her father; she thrived in places with people (even though she was equally comfortable being alone with her mother).
"I'll get the holo rings." Beast Boy got up and set his daughter down.
"Hold on, Beast Boy." Robin held his hand up. "I've got a better idea. Go without them."
Raven and Beast Boy both looked at him in surprise. Beast Boy had no issues going without the ring, but he had worn it for Raven's sake when they took Emelia out. Raven hated the attention civilians gave her, even though she still got looks since they looked like an underage couple with a child. Raven frowned.
"Robin…"
"Relax Raven." The Boy Wonder smiled. "I'm sure Beast Boy's got an ace up his sleeve for pesky people. If people are going to find out about the children, then I'd rather it be done like this instead of rumors on the internet."
All eyes turned to a mischievously smiling changeling.
"I got several somethings, dude."
Raven glanced nervously at Beast Boy and Emelia as they exited the car. Cyborg called out that he would be back in a while and for them to have fun, smirking the whole time. Beast Boy waved his best friend goodbye as Emelia told him bye. Raven simply nodded at him.
"So where are we going first?" Beast Boy leaned down and picked his daughter up. Raven looked around, already noting the people staring at them. He paid them no mind as he chatted with Emelia.
"Can we go to the toy store please?"
"Sure thing. Let's go." Beast Boy smiled at Emelia then looked at Raven. She was immensely uncomfortable. Emelia followed her fathers' gaze and stared hard at her mother. The shapeshifter could have sworn he saw the little girls' eyes glowing bright purple out of the corner of his eye.
"Let's go." Raven said, drawing his attention back to her. She appeared to have calmed down considerably.
Huh? He thought to himself as he watched a calmer Raven walk through the parting crowd. He followed shortly after, Emelia giggling in his arms about who-knows-what. Beast Boy kept his eyes darting back and forth between the girl in his arms and the girl in front of him. Every time Raven appeared to get agitated (not that the normal person could tell; you had to know Raven like he did to notice these things), Emelia would begin to watch her mother intently. Very soon after the half demoness would calm down again. This continued to happen until they got deep inside the mall, where the good toy shops were. The sheer volume of people around them was making Raven rather agitated, to which Emelia responded in her strange way once again.
Beast Boy stared hard at his daughter until she noticed. Looking up at him, she giggled and held her finger up to her lips. His eyes widened when it hit him.
Emelia is calming Raven down!
He opened his mouth to question the little girl when a voice in front of him broke his line of thought.
"Excuse me, Miss Raven? I'm with the Jump City Times and Channel 12 JCBP. I have a few questions I'd like to ask you!" A blonde haired girl stood in front of Raven, a tall and lanky camera man standing behind her with a recording camera.
"No." Raven said monotonously.
"Come on, just a few questions!" The blonde begged, waving her microphone under Raven's face. "Just one or two?"
"She said no!" The changeling surged forward, an irritated look on his face. "The only one allowed to pester Raven is me!"
Raven raised an eyebrow at him as she took Emelia from her teammate. Beast Boy didn't hesitate to step in front of her, blocking them from the camera.
"Oh, Beast Boy is here too? Amazing, everyone thinks you hate each other!" The blonde woman smiled. "So tell me, what brings you two out here on this lovely day? And who is the little girl?"
"She's-"
"She's so adorable! Hello there, what's your name?" The reporter went right around Beast Boy and offered her hand to Emelia, who looked at her in disgust.
"Mommy, I don't like her. Tell her to go away."
The people in the surrounding area froze, all of them looking wide eyed at the two teens in front of them. Raven pulled her hood up over her face to hide her growing blush as Beast Boy stared daggers at the news crew.
The blonde woman's eyes lit up at the thought of such a scoop. "I'm sorry, but did that little girl call Raven 'mommy'? Does that make you the father? Aren't you two a little young to be having children? How did you hide this from everyone for so long?"
"Back off lady." Beast Boy growled. "It's not like that, we adopted her. We're just friends!"
"Now why is it that I don't believe you?" She smiled and turned towards the camera man. "Make sure you're getting all of this."
A clawed hand snapped past her and tore the camera from her coworkers grasp. Both looked at Beast Boy with a gasp as he took the film and SD cards from the camera and crushed them.
"What the hell man!" The camera man shouted and bowed up at the changeling.
"You're not turning us into some kind of freaking spectacle, dude. I don't care what you say." Beast Boy crossed his arms after tossing the man his camera.
"You're replacing my SD cards, you damned freak!"
Beast Boy growled. "Send me a bill."
"Tell me someone is recording this!" The blonde shouted. "I'll reward anyone who is!"
Several people surged forward, cell phones held out. They were only stopped by a small but commanding voice.
"Stop fighting."
Everyone present turned towards the little girl with four purple glowing eyes and gasped. She looked around at everyone and spoke again.
"Be nice. You're making mommy and daddy angry."
Raven was speechless as a tsunami of calmness washed over her and everyone present. Beast Boy and the camera man visibly relaxed, the blonde woman looked down in shame, and everyone who had offered their phones began deleting their recordings. The sorceress looked down at the little girl in her arms and watched as her eyes reverted back to normal. Emelia shook her head and lay it against Raven's chin, yawning.
"Look…I'm sorry for prying. It's my job." The blonde woman looked meekly at the teens.
Beast Boy shook his head. "I'm sorry for flipping out like that. It's stressful to be the center of so much attention. And seriously dude, send me the bill for the SD cards, I will replace them."
The camera man nodded. "Sorry for getting all aggro, man."
Raven could only wonder what the hell just happened.
"Emelia, honey, what did you do?" Raven asked her daughter some time later. They were sitting in the food court, eating ice cream while Beast Boy looked about for a vegan-friendly dessert.
The little girl looked up from her mint chocolate chip ice cream. "Everyone was making you and daddy mad so I asked them to stop."
Raven pursed her lips in thought. That was exactly what happened, but how did she make everyone calm down? The sorceress herself had been on the verge of losing her temper with the nosy news crew and everyone knew how bad her temper was. She was lost in thought when Beast Boy reappeared, a piece of blueberry pie on a plate in his hands.
"Hey Rae, what the heck did Emmy do back there?" He asked, chomping on a piece of pie.
"It's Raven, not Rae." She said automatically before taking a bite of her sugar free country vanilla ice cream. "And I'm not sure. It could be an empathic ability like mine, but she projected an emotion onto people instead of felt them like I do."
"That's one heck of a projection." The changeling muttered.
"Indeed." Raven agreed with a single nod. "Have you seen her display any other powers?"
"Phasing." He said instantly.
Raven quirked an eyebrow at him. "Really? When does she do that?"
"When she's playing tag with Martin!" Beast Boy laughed. Raven couldn't help but smirking a little as she considered her daughter's innocent use of her powers. Her thoughts were dashed at her companions' next comment.
"Rae, she did the whole four eyed thing you do when yer mad. Is that bad?"
The half demon paused, looking at the little girl who was happily eating ice cream. After a moment, she shook her head. "I don't think so…not yet anyways. We'll have to keep a closer eye on her as she gets older."
Beast Boy nodded and rubbed the little girl on the head affectionately.
"Mommy, wear this one! It's pretty!"
Raven glanced at the shirt her little girl was pointing at, a black halter top with the dark blue word 'Meh' on it. It looked a little short and Raven had never been fond of showing off her midriff. She was about to say no when she saw something absolutely terrifying.
The Face.
Damnation and hellfire, when did Beast Boy teach her that? Raven thought as she reached for the shirt to try it on. In her other hand was a pair of black skinny jeans she wasn't entirely sure she could wear. Her bottom was a tad larger than she liked. She told Emelia to come with her and walked to the changing room.
Off to the side, Beast Boy was rifling through a rack of shirts. It was the first time he'd ever been in Hot Topic, but seeing all the music/anime/game based shirts made him decide it would be worth a look. As he looked closer at the last few on the rack, he found one he liked that was just his size. He grabbed it and a pair of weird pants with a gazillion straps and pockets and chains on it and headed for the changing room.
A minute later, he was outside the changing room looking at himself in the mirror when Raven came out of the ladies changing room. His mouth dropped when he saw her.
"What?" Raven raised an eyebrow at him.
"N-nothing Rae…you just look so…" He stammered, a light blush creeping up his cheeks. "Different."
She rolled her eyes. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."
"If I had a camera I would." He said instantly before smacking a hand over his face. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?"
"Yep!" Emelia giggled.
Raven turned away from them and examined herself in the mirror. The halter top showed off all of her arms and hugged her chest a bit tighter than she liked, but at least the bottom covered her stomach. It reached just past the regular black belt she put on. It really did look good on her, she concluded. A step to the left adjusted her view to peer at Beast Boy. His black shirt read 'It's an otaku thing, you wouldn't understand' and he was wearing a pair of purple trip pants. She had no idea what an otaku was but the shirt looked completely natural on Beast Boy. Oddly enough the pants did too, giving him a sort of punkish look that Raven thought looked good on him.
The lavender haired girl paused in surprise at her own thoughts. Had she really just thought her friend Beast Boy looked good? Where the hell did that come from?
Shaking her head, she darted back into the changing room. Within moments she was wearing her leotard again and exited to find Beast Boy waiting for his turn to change. A couple of minutes later, he was back in his old Doom Patrol uniform and they approached the counter. They found a girl with long white hair and blue eyes standing at the counter, looking bored. She eyed them as the set clothes on the counter.
"Aren't you the Teen Titans Beast Boy and Raven?" She asked.
"Yep." Beast Boy smiled.
"Cool." She smiled. "Never met celebrities before."
As she scanned Beast Boys' clothes, she cast a glance at Emelia and raised an eyebrow. Raven caught this look and frowned.
"No, she's not ours. Not exactly."
"Oh?"
"Adopted is the closest term we can use." Beast Boy smiled at the white haired girl as she handed him his change.
"That's sweet of you guys to take in an orphan. You make such a cute couple."
Raven visibly flinched. "We're not a couple, we're just friends with a mutual interest in making sure this girl has a good childhood."
The girl leaned forward, a smile on her face. "You're seriously telling me that you're in here with a cute guy and a little girl that calls you her parents and you're not a couple?"
"Yes." Raven raised an eyebrow at the girl, wondering what she was getting at. Beast Boy…cute?
A wider smile was on the cashier's face as she took Raven's money after ringing her up. Within a moment, Raven and Emelia were walking towards the door with Beast Boy in tow. A voice called out to them.
"Hey Beast Boy!"
The changeling stopped and turned around just in time to catch a piece of paper. He opened it up and saw a set of numbers. Wide eyed and slack jawed, he looked up at the girl. Behind him, Raven stopped and arched an eyebrow at the spectacle.
The white haired girl winked at him. "My name is Rose Wilson. Call me some time."
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!
Boy, Emmy's got some weird powers huh? Don't worry, they'll get explained later.
Maybe :P
